1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic camera for recording into a record medium images picked up using a solid state image pickup device such as a CCD.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there is known an electronic camera, or, a so called digital camera which picks up the images of a subject using a solid state image pickup device such as a CCD. In the digital camera, images photographed (picked-up images) are recorded into a record medium such as a floppy disk or a memory card in the form of electronic data. Also, the digital camera has a reproduction function to display the picked-up images recorded in the memory card on the screen of a display such as a television.
In the case of an ordinary digital camera, since the ratio of the length and breadth of the screen of a display such as a television for displaying the picked-up images is 3:4, there is used a solid state image pickup device having a length-to-breadth ratio of 3:4.
By the way, when picking up the images of a subject, a user judges whether the images of the subject should be picked up with more breadth than length or with more length than breadth; and, when picking up the images of the subject with more length than breadth, the user turns the main body of the digital camera by 90° before the subject images are picked up. On the other hand, because the number of cases in which the subject images are picked up with more breadth than length is larger than the number of cases in which the subject images are picked up with more length than breadth, the digital camera is conventionally structured in such a shape that allows the fingers and palm of the user to touch the digital camera main body closely when the subject images are picked up with more breadth than length, thereby allowing the user to hold the camera main body stably and making it difficult for the camera main body to be moved slightly. Therefore, when picking up the subject images with more length than breadth by turning the camera main body by 90°, the holding of the camera main body is unstable and the slight camera movement is easy to occur, which makes it difficult to obtain images of good quality.
In order to solve the above problem, in the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei4-37621 or in the Examined Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. Sho64-24333, there is proposed a digital camera which is capable of picking up the images of a subject selectively with more breadth than length or with more length than breadth without turning the main body of the digital camera.
[Problems to be Solved]
In the digital camera disclosed in the Examined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei4-37621, an image pickup device hold table with a solid state image pickup device held thereon is disposed so as to be rotatable with respect to the main body of the digital camera and, in operation, by rotating the image pickup device hold table using a motor, the subject images can be picked up selectively with more breadth than length or with more length than breadth with no need to turn the digital camera main body. However, this structure requires a rotation mechanism for rotating the image pickup device hold table, which not only increases the size of the digital camera main body to thereby degrade the operation efficiency thereof but also increases the cost of the digital camera.
On the other hand, in the case of the digital camera disclosed in the Examined Japanese Utility Model Application Publication Sho64-24333, when image pickup with more length than breadth is selected, by setting the two right and left sides of the solid state image pickup device out of the image pickup effective range thereof, that is, by cutting the two right and left sides, image pickup with more length than breadth or image pickup with more breadth than length can be executed selectively without turning the camera main body. However, according to this structure, in the case of the image pickup with more length than breadth, the number of pixels of a solid state image pickup device used in this image pickup is reduced greatly, which makes it difficult to obtain images of good quality.